CO 

o 


LxJ 


THE  LIBRARY 
OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 

MRS,  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


I 


I 


Y^ZXms^  -^c  '^ 


X)S47 


NOTES  OF  ExlSTERN  TRAVEL. 


T7ie  Ancient  Roman  Road  from  PhiladelpTtia  to  Gerasa. 
— It  was  Wednesday,  September  3,  1890,  when  I  left  Amman 
(Philadelphia)  en  route  for  Jerash  (Gerasa).  I  had  intended 
going  by  the  usual  roundabout  road  through  Es-Salt,  but 
Fellah,  the  '  Adwan  chief  who  acted  as  my  escort,  preferred  to 
avoid  that  government  post,  and  proposed  that  we  should 
take  the  direct  road  to  the  east  of  Mount  Gilead.  As  an 
Inducement  he  promised  to  show  us  an  unknown  ruin  and  an 
uncopied  inscription.  On  the  small  maps  which  I  had  with 
me  this  region  was  a  perfect  blank,  and  I  accordingly  ac- 
cepted the  offer.  In  point  of  fact,  this  route  had  been  trav- 
ersed by  Guy  le  Strange  (who  describes  it  in  Scliuhmacher's 
Across  the  Jordan)^  Selah  Merrill,  Laurence  Oliphant,  and 
perhaps  others.  But  the  number  who  have  visited  it  is  very 
small,  and  the  region  has  been  as  yet  but  imperfectly  ex- 
plored. Conder  failed  to  survey  this  part  of  the  country  on 
account  of  the  interference  of  the  Turkish  authorities,  who 
brought  the  East- Jordan  survey  to  an  abrupt  termination  and 
expelled  the  explorers.  The  road,  which  I  do  not  find  on 
Kiepert's  maps,  is  correctly  laid  down  in  Fischer- Guthe's 
Neue  Handkarte  von  Paldstina. 

Starting  from  our  camp  toward  the  southeastern  end  of  the 
ruins  of  Amman,  we  descended  the  Wady  Amman  to  the 
northeast  until  we  had  reached  the  end  of  the  ruins  in  that 
direction,  then  we  turned  up  a  ravine  to  the  west,  where  were 
rock-cut  tombs.      Ascending  the  side  of  this  ravine  we  found 

? 


2  JOHN  P.   PETERS. 

ourselves  on  a  paved  Roman  road  leading  north.  After  rid- 
ing for  about  an  hour  over  a  barren,  stony  plateau,  we  entered 
a  hill  country,  wooded  with  oak  and  terebinth.  Two  hours 
from  Amman  we  found  some  columns  standing  by  the  side  of 
the  road.  These  were  plain  shafts,  unadorned  and  bearing  no 
marks.  Ten  minutes  later  we  came  upon  the  extensive  ruins 
of  Yajuz,  or  Kom  Yajuz,  lying  along  the  little  Wady  el-Ham- 
mam  and  the  hills  on  both  sides  of  it.  ISTo  one  has  yet  found 
any  inscriptions  in  these  ruins,  but  capitals  of  columns,  orna- 
mental shell-shaped  niches,  a  stone  lion  and  an  eagle,  which 
were  lying  about  the  well  at  the  time  of  my  visit,  as  well  as 
the  ornamental  stone-cutting,  which  I  found  in  some  of  the 
houses,  indicate  clearly  that  they  belong  to  the  late  Roman 
period.  And  here  I  may  add,  a  fact  which  I  have  not  seen 
noticed  elsewhere,  that  while  in  the  Moabite  country,  as 
at  Ma' in,  Madeba,  Hesban,  and  el-Al,  the  ruins  which  strike 
the  eye  belong  in  general  to  the  sixth  post-Christian  century, 
the  ruins  farther  north,  beginning  with  Kharaibet-es-Sukh, 
a  little  south  of  Amman,  are  several  centuries  earlier. 

Merrill  has  suggested  the  identification  of  Yajuz  with 
Gadda,  mentioned  in  the  Tabula  Peutingeriana  as  on  the 
road  from  Damascus  to  Philadelphia,  thirteen  Roman  miles 
from  the  latter,  and  eleven  miles  from  Hatita  or  Haditha, 
which  he  identifies  with  Kal'at  ez-Zerka  ;  but  according  to 
my  itinerary  Yajuz  is  a  little  less  than  six  Roman  miles  from 
Amman,  which  agrees  with  the  distance  as  given  in  the 
Fischer-Guthe  map  referred  to  above.  Whatever  the  city 
was  it  was  a  place  of  considerable  size  about  200  a,  d.,  but 
apparently  unfortified.  It  is  not  mentioned  by  the  Arabian 
geographers  and  historians,  and  would  seem  to  have  fallen 
into  ruins  before  their  day. 

One  hour  and  twenty  minutes  beyond  Yajuz  we  came  upon 
several  fallen  columns  lying  on  the  east  side  of  the  road. 
Le  Strange  says  :  "  Where  the  road  runs  along  the  western 
slope  of  a  shallow  valley,  we  passed  fragments  of  six  more 
broken  columns  "  ;  but  he  failed  to  observe  the  inscription  of 
Severus  which  was  on  the  under  side  of  one  of  the  fallen  col- 
umns. This  was  a  monolith  of  white  limestone,  not  less  than 
nine  feet  in  length,  broken  at  the  top,  and  with  a  large  square 
pediment.     The  inscription  was  on  the  under  side,  only  a  few 


NOTES  OF  EASTERN  TRAVEL.  3 

letters  being  visible  in  the  position  in  which  the  column  lay. 
Fella,h  told  us  a  story  about  fifteen  Frenchmen  whom  he  had 
brought  to  this  place,  and  who  had  been  unable  to  turn  the 
column  so  as  to  examine  the  inscription.  And  certainly  it 
was  a  difficult  stone  to  move  both  on  account  of  its  weight, 
and  still  more  on  account  of  the  large  square  j^edestal  which 
held  it  firmly  anchored.  However,  Mr.  Tod,  my  servant 
Hajji  Rework,  and  I  scoojDed  out  with  our  knives  and  fingers 
a  deep  hole  the  length  of  the  column,  and  then  juried  it  down 
into  the  hole  by  means  of  a  terebinth  bough  as  a  lever.  In 
this  manner  Ave  turned  it  completely  over,  and  I  was  able  to 
copy  the  whole  inscription,  which  proved  to  be  an  inscription  of 
Severus,  as  given  in  Professor  Merriam's  article  in  this  Jour- 
nal (No.  1).  Near  this  lay  another  jDlain  shaft  marked  thus  : 
+  II  +,  while  on  a  third  column  there  was,  according  to  my 
day  book,  an  inscription  ;  but  if  so  I  either  failed  to  copy  it, 
or  have  lost  my  copy.  The  XDoint  at  which  these  columns  lay 
is  marked  on  the  Fischer- Guthe  map  as  a  ruined  site  named 
Saf  ut.     I  saw  no  other  ruins  and  did  not  hear  this  name. 

One  mile  beyond  this  Le  Strange  reports  "the  shafts  of 
two  broken  columns"  of  white  limestone,  one  a  monolith 
nine  feet  in  length,  near  the  point  at  which  a  road  to  Es-Salt 
branches  off  from  the  old  Roman  road.  These  two  columns 
I  failed  to  see. 

One  hour  and  twenty-five  minutes  beyond  the  inscription 
of  Severus  we  found  at  the  bottom  of  a  valley  a  well  called 
'Ain  Kamshe,  where  Ave  encamped  for  the  night.  This  is 
thirteen  Roman  miles  from  Amman,  on  the  road  to  Damascus, 
and  would  therefore  correspond  Avith  the  position  of  Gadda 
as  given  in  the  Tabula  Peutingeriana.  It  should  be  said, 
however,  that,  excepting  the  Avell  itself,  Ave  saAv  no  remains 
of  antiquity  ;  but  such  a  AA^ell  in  that  country  must  ahvays 
have  attracted  to  itself  some  sort  of  settlement  in  the  days 
when  the  country  was  settled.  What  role,  if  any,  Gadda 
played  in  history,  and  Avhat  AA^as  the  origin  of  the  name  I 
have  been  unable  to  ascertain.  The  name  certainly  looks 
as  if  it  were  merely  a  Greek  or  Roman  form  of  the 
ancient  Hebrew  Gad,  which  Avas  one  of  the  names  of  this 
district,  so  that  even  the  Wady  Zerka  seems  to  have  been 
called  by  the  Hebrews  Nahr-Gad  (2  Sam.  xxiv.  5). 


4  JOHN  P.    PETERS. 

Shortly  after  leaving  'Ain  Kamslie  the  next  morning 
we  lost  the  Roman  road,  and  found  ourselves  following  a 
mere  track  due  north.  One  hour  and  thirty-eight  minutes 
after  leaving  'Ain  Kamshe  we  came  to  the  insignificant  ruins 
of  Jubba,  which  I  have  not  found  on  any  map.  Apparently 
it  was  a  town  of  about  the  same  period  as  Yajuz,  but  small 
and  unimportant.  An  hour  later  we  w^ere  in  the  deep  valley 
of  the  Zerka,  with  its  wide  stretches  of  pebbles  and  its  beauti- 
ful groves  of  oleanders.  On  the  other  side  we  found  the 
Roman  road  once  more,  ascending  the  Wady  Jerash  to  the 
ancient  Gerasa,  which  Merrill  would  identify  with  the  still 
more  ancient  Ramoth  Gilead.  Along  this  road  we  found 
three  old  Roman  milestones  in  place.  The  first  of  these, 
which  we  found  twenty-nine  minutes  after  crossing  the  Zerka, 
was  marked  IIII.  On  the  next,  which  we  passed  nineteen 
minutes  later,  I  observed  no  mark,  nor  on  the  third,  which 
was  thirty-seven  minutes  further  on.  Between  these  twa 
evidently  one  stone  had  been  lost. 

Inscriptions  at  Jerash.  The  PropylcBum. — The  arch  has 
fallen,  and  the  stones  lie  piled  together  in  a  great  heap  ex- 
tending down  into  the  street.  I  copied  every  inscribed  piece 
which  I  could  find  in  this  heap,  but  had  no  means  of  remov- 
ing the  stones,  or  even  turning  them  over.  I  also  endeavored 
to  photograph  everything,  but  by  a  piece  of  rascality,  the 
removal  of  a  lens,  these  and  a  large  number  of  other  would-be 
photographs  were  destroyed.  Within  the  last  few  years  the 
Turkish  government  has  granted  Jerash  to  a  colony  of  Cir- 
cassian refugees  from  the  Caucasus.  They  have  settled  on  the 
east  side  of  the  stream,  in  that  portion  of  the  city  formerly  used 
for  residences,  and  not  in  the  part  in  which  the  temjDles  and 
other  public  buildings  stood.  They  are  utilizing  the  ruins  to 
furnish  material  for  their  houses.  In  the  wall  of  one  house  I 
saw  an  inscription  upside  down,  which  I  could  not  copy,  but 
photographed,  and  have  therefore  lost.  The  same  was  true  of 
another  inscription  utilized  in  the  building  of  a  wall.  They 
were  neither  of  them,  however,  of  any  especial  importance. 
Doubtless  every  year  the  Circassians  dig  up  several  such 
stones.  (At  Amman  also  something  of  the  same  sort  is  going 
on,  and  a  fine-looking  ISTabathsean  inscription  was  dug  up 
there  the  day  I  left  the  place,  but  I  was  unable  to  get  more 


NOTES  OF  EASTERN  TRAVEL.  5 

tliaii  a  glance  at  it.)  In  the  immediate  neigliborliood  of 
the  propylseum  building  there  must  be  a  considerable 
amount  of  inscribed  material,  even  the  columns  in  the 
streets  at  this  iDoint  bearing  inscriptions.  Very  little  labor 
among  the  heaps  of  stones  lying  in  front  of  the  propylseum, 
and  in  the  basilica  which  is  opposite  it,  Avould  proba- 
bly be  rewarded  by  the  recovery  of  a  number  of  new 
inscriptions.  Unfortunately,  I  was  unable  to  accomplish 
this  labor.  The  only  new  inscription  which  I  brought 
back  from  Jerash  was  one  found  on  a  gravestone  (see 
No.  2,  in  Professor  Merriam's  article)  in  the  cemetery  to  the 
north  of  the  town.  My  other  inscriptions  had  already  been 
published.  But  Professor  Merriam  has  found  among 
my  notes  some  material  for  the  correction  of  the  inscrip- 
tion of  Antoninus  Pius  on  the  great  arch  of  the  propylseum 
{Ihld.,  No.  3). 

In  excuse  of  my  apparent  supineness  regarding  inscrip- 
tions I  must  say  that  I  visited  the  east  of  Jordan  merely  as  a 
tourist,  for  my  own  information,  and  with  no  idea  of  finding 
any  unpublished  inscriptions.  In  fact  I  supposed  that  every- 
thing had  been  copied  and  published.  I  had  been  in  the 
saddle  for  four  months,  riding  through  Irak  as  far  south  as 
Mugheir  (Ur),  then  up  the  Euphrates,  and  through  Palestine 
in  midsummer,  and  was  much  exhausted.  My  time  was 
limited.  I  had  had  no  opportunity  to  look  up  publications 
beforehand  and  make  notes  for  my  guidance,  and  had  only  a 
general  knowledge  of  what  had  been  done.  I  did  not  know, 
when  I  started  for  Palestine,  that  I  should  be  able  to  do  more 
than  follow  in  the  usual  beaten  tracks,  and  made  no  material 
provision  for  work.  As  the  result  of  my  brief  experience  east 
of  Jordan  I  can  say  that  there  are  still  abundant  gleanings  of 
Greek  and  Latin  inscriptions,  generally  the  former.  Even  at 
Bosrah,  where  I  supposed  that  everything  had  been  copied,  I 
saw  in  the  underground  jDassages  of  the  citadel  (the  old 
theatre)  a  Greek  inscription  of  considerable  length,  which 
seems  to  have  escaped  observation  ;  at  least  I  have  not 
found  it  among  the  j)ublished  inscriptions  from  that  place. 
Unfortunately  I  did  not  copy  it,  because  I  supposed  that  it 
had  been  long  since  copied  and  published,  and  an  attempt  on 
my  loart  would  have  meant  lights  and  time,  and  therefore  not 


6  JOHN  P.   PETERS. 

merely  backsheesh,  but  permission  and  suspicion,  with  danger 
of  delay. 

Palmyrene  Roads. — In  his  notice  of  the  Wolfe  Expedition 
to  Babylonia,  Professor  Sterrett  has  published  four  milestone 
inscriptions  found  between  Rakka  or  Erek  (Aracha)  and 
Tadmor  (Palmyra),  with  a  notice  of  three  miliiaria  or  frag- 
ments of  miliiaria  from  the  same  stretch  of  road.  I  can  add 
to  these  one  more  stone,  found  three  hours  and  eighteen  min- 
utes beyond  Erek  on  the  road  toward  the  Euphrates.  It  was 
apparently  a  milliarium,  but  of  unusually  large  size.  It  had 
been  broken,  and  only  one  large  fragment,  seven  feet  or  so  in 
length,  and  a  good  two  feet  at  least  in  diameter,  was  to  be 
found.  It  was  much  covered  with  gray  lichen,  and  the 
inscription,  which  was  not  deeply  cut,  was  for  the  most  part 
illegible.  Out  of  seven  lines  I  could  read  only  a  few  scattered 
letters  in  the  last  four  {Ibid.,  No.  4).  The  stone  and  the 
inscription  did  not  resemble  the  stone  and  inscription  on  the 
eighth  milestone  from  Palmyra,  a  Diocletian  inscription  {cf. 
Sterrett,  Pax>ers  of  the  Am.  School  of  Class.  Studies,  Wolfe 
Expedition  to  Asia  Minor.,  No.  634),  but  did  resemble 
another  stone,  also  copied  by  Sterrett,  which  lay  further 
out  from  Palmyra  (Sterrett,  No.  633). 

Sterrett  passed  out  of  Palmyra  going  west  by  the  Homs 
route.  I  entered  it  on  my  way  from  Beirout  to  Baghdad,  in 
November  of  1889,  by  the  Kurietain  road,  and  returned  over 
the  same  road  in  July  of  1890,  and  was  much  impressed  with 
the  remains  of  ancient  road  stations  of  the  Palmyrene  period 
on  that  route,  of  which  I  have  read  little  in  descriptions  of 
Palmyra.  On  this  southwestern  road,  two  hours  and  twenty 
minutes  from  the  mouth  of  the  little  j)ass  through  which  one 
leaves  Palmyra,  almost  in  the  middle  of  the  plain,  are  the 
remains  of  quite  a  large  building,  and  there  also  stands  erect 
at  this  point  a  column,  similar,  except  for  its  lack  of  inscrip- 
tion, to  the  Diocletian  miliiaria  on  the  road  from  Palmyra  to 
Aracha.  Four  hours  and  forty  minutes  beyond  this,  on  the 
direct  line  through  the  plain  to  Kurietain,  is  a  very  deep 
ancient  well,  now  called  '  Ain  el-Bweida.  An  ancient  column 
was  still  standing  here,  but  no  inscrij^tion  was  visible.  There 
was  evidently  an  old  road  station  at  this  point,  and  to-day 
the  Turks  have  a  miserable  little  garrison  of  two  or  three 
gendarmes  stationed  by  the  well. 


NOTES  OF  EASTERN  TRAVEL.  1 

Seven  hours  and  ten  minutes  beyond  this,  still  on  the 
straight  line  to  Kurietain,  lies  the  picturesque  and  striking 
ruin  of  Kasr  el-Hair.  Here  were  standing  the  ruins  of  a  tower 
some  fifty  feet  in  height,  and  originally  forty  feet  square  at 
the  base.  The  construction  was  characteristically  Palmyrene, 
and  on  one  of  the  corner  stones  halfway  up  the  tower  were 
two  sun  discs,  one  plain  and  one  with  curved  radii.  By  the 
side  of  the  tower  was  a  building  of  brick  and  stone,  sur- 
rounding a  large  court,  some  two  hundred  feet  square,  and 
entered  by  a  very  ornamental  stone  gateway  on  the  east  side. 
This  had  evidently  been  a  caravanserai.  Outside  of  the  walls 
and  tower  were  a  couple  of  smaller  ruins,  and  near  one  of 
these  an  ancient  well,  now  choked  up.  Half  a  mile  to  the 
north  is  another  gateway,  similar  to  the  one  mentioned  above, 
but  almost  entirely  without  the  rich  and  elaborate  carving  by 
which  that  was  adorned.  The  building  belonging  to  this  gate- 
way had  quite  disappeared,  but  not  far  away  were  the  ruins 
of  a  large  reservoir.  This  obtained  its  water  through  an 
aqueduct  which  runs  several  miles  across  the  plain  to  Sedd 
el-Berdi  in  the  mountains  southward.  Here  are  the  ruins  of 
a  dam  across  a  ravine,  by  means  of  which  in  the  rainy  season 
water  was  stored  for  use  in  the  dry.  The  whole  equipment 
of  this  station  was  singularly  interesting  and  complete,  but 
I  have  never  seen  it  described  by  any  traveller. 

Seven  hours  and  thirty  minutes  from  Kasr  el-Hair,  across  a 
perfectly  level  plain  (Kiepert's  map  represents  incorrectly  a 
chain  of  hills  as  partially  crossing  the  plain  at  this  point)  lies 
Kurietain,  some,  ancient  Kiriathaim,  the  most  important 
station  on  the  road  from  Palmyra  to  Damascus.  Here  there 
is  plenty  of  water,  including  hot  sulphur  springs,  and  a  town 
of  some  importance  has  always  existed.  Several  fragments 
of  inscriptions,  for  the  most  part  copied  by  others  (but  cf. 
Prof.  Merriam's  No.  5),  I  found  built  into  walls,  one  in- 
scribed stone  forming  the  lintel  of  the  gateway  of  a  courtyard. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  add  a  word  regarding  the  roads  to 
the  east  of  Palmyra.  We  have  seen  that  Roman  milestones 
are  found  beyond  Eakka  (Aracha),  the  first  station  beyond 
Palmyra.  In  addition  to  these  milestones,  we  find  at  certain 
distances  the  ruins  of  ancient  guardhouses,  giving  evidence 
of  the  necessity  of  protection  along  this  frontier  road.     At 


8  [IJOHN  P.   PETERS.\ 

Sukhne,  between  eight  and  nine  hours  beyond  Rakka,  there 
is  running  water,  and  also  hot  sulphur  springs.  There  are 
visible  here  the  foundations  of  ancient  buildings  of  consider- 
able extent.  Evidentl}^  Sukhne  was  a  town,  and  probably 
a  bathing  resort  of  some  sort,  in  the  Palmyrene  and  Roman 
periods.  What  its  ancient  name  was  is  not  known.  From 
this  point  the  present  track  to  Babylonia  leads  a  little  north 
of  east  to  Jubb  Kabakib,  or  deep  well  of  Kabakib,  seventeen 
hours  from  Sukhne.  Between  these  two  points  I  found  no 
trace  of  old  roads,  but  at  Kabakib,  besides  the  well,  which  is 
ancient,  there  are  the  ruins  of  a  reservoir  and  aqueduct. 
The  same  plan  for  collecting  and  storing  water  had  been 
pursued  here  as  at  Kasr  el-Hair.  From  this  point  the  official 
Turkish  route  leads  to  Deir  on  the  Euphrates  (Kiepert's  map 
indicates  a  sort  of  wady  as  leading  from  Sukhne  to  Deir, 
forming  a  natural  route,  but  no  such  wady  exists),  but  the 
traditional  caravan  route  is  from  Kabakib  to  the  old  castle  of 
Rehaba,  a  long  day's  journey  further  down  the  river.  This 
is  a  shorter  and  more  natural  road  than  the  one  to  Deir. 
Rehaba  itself  is  an  Arabic  ruin  of  a  rather  late  period,  but 
built  apparently  upon  a  much  earlier  fortress.  There  was 
quite  a  centre  of  population  hereabout  in  the  Arabic  period. 
There  are  several  ruined  villages  along  the  bluff  of  the 
desert  plateau  near  Rehaba,  and  the  plain  of  the  Euphrates, 
which  is  unusually  broad  at  this  point,  is  strewed  for  miles 
with  fragments  of  glass,  brick,  and  pottery,  and  dotted  with 
ruined  mounds.  Two  of  these  tells  on  the  edge  of  the  river 
are  occupied  by  good-sized  modern  villages,  Meyadin  and 
Ishara,  but  the  earliest  remains  which  the  natives  seem  to 
have  discovered  in  such  part  of  those  tells  as  they  have  dis- 
turbed do  not  antedate  the  close  of  the  seventh  post-Christian 
century.  A  little  above  Rehaba  occurs  the  junction  of  the 
ancient  Khabour  with  the  EujDlirates,  and  there,  on  the  north- 
ern bank  of  the  Euphrates,  stood  Circesium.  In  view  of  these 
facts,  I  should  suppose  that  the  ancient  road  certainly  joined 
the  Euphrates  at  Rehaba,  and  not  Deir.  One  day's  journey 
below  Rehaba,  where  the  river  presses  close  against  the 
southern  bluff,  some  t^vo  hundred  feet  in  height,  stands  in  a 
commanding  position  the  fine  ruin  of  Salahiyeh.  Although 
bearing  the  name  of  Selah-ud-din,  this  is  manifestly  a  Pal- 


^^OTES  OF  EASTERN  TRAVEL.  » 

myrene  ruin,  and  marks  the  eastern  limit  of  the  Palmyrene 
dominions  in  the  strict  sense,  as  does  Halebiyeh  or  Zenobieh 
(ancient  Zenobia)  the  western.  What  was  the  ancient  name 
of  Salahiyeh  I  have  been  unable  to  ascertain,  or  whether 
there  was  a  direct  route  from  Sukhne  to  this  point. 

Certain  it  is,  however,  that  in  the  Palmyrene  and  Roman 
period  there  was  a  direct  road  northward  from  Sukhne  to 
Ragga,  ancient  Nicephorium,  on  the  Euphrates.  This  road 
passed  through  Resafa,  the  biblical  Rezeph,  a  city  important 
and  famous  in  Hebrew  and  Assyrian  times.  Resafa  was  vis- 
ited in  1838  or  1839,  at  the  time  of  the  English  survey  of  the 
Euphrates,  and  reported  to  be  a  finely  preserved  ruin  of  the 
Byzantine  period.  Later  travellers  failed  to  reach  it,  and 
among  others  Sachau.  I  was  equally  unfortunate.  More- 
over, Arabs,  who  professed  to  have  visited  the  site,  assured 
me  that  there  was  no  longer  anything  standing.  This  seemed 
not  improbable,  in  view  of  the  changes  which  had  taken 
place  in  the  neighboring  Zenobia  between  Chesney's  expedi- 
tion and  our  own.  But  last  winter  Mr.  Haynes  succeeded 
in  visiting  the  place  on  behalf  of  the  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania expedition  to  Babylonia.  He  writes  me  as 
follows  : 

"Resafa  appears  to  have  been  an  important  city  in  the 
early  centuries  of  our  era,  as  a  large  church  of  the  third  or 
fourth  century  attests. 

"The  walls  still  stand,  but  being  built  of  soft  gypsum  (pure 
and  white)  are  badly  crumbled  in  places.  The  city  was  built 
four  square,  with  its  sides  to  the  cardinal  points  and  enclosed 
an  area  of  more  than  sixty  acres.  Its  beautiful  gate  is  worthy 
of  more  time  and  attention  than  I  could  give  it.  The  city  was 
supplied  with  splendid  cisterns,  both  within  and  without  the 
walls.  Some  of  these  cisterns  are  perfect  to-day.  The  soil 
is  excellent,  too,  and  altogether  it  is  a  charming  spot  for  a 
desert  city." 

El'  Uz  and  El-Khut7ir.—0n  the  basis  of  a  couple  of  frag- 
mentary inscriptions  I  have  perhaps  roamed  over  an  inade- 
quately large  territory  in  my  notes,  and  yet,  finding  myself 
in  the  region  of  the  Euphrates,  I  cannot  refrain  from  wander- 
ing still  further,  and  adding  a  brief  note  on  two  sites,  the 
origin  and  meanino-  of  whose  names  seem  to  have  been  over- 


10  JOHN  P.   PETEBS. 

looked  by  all  travellers.  In  the  Euphrates,  some  three  days' 
journey  below  Anah,  lies  the  island  town  of  el-Ouzz,  as  it  is 
given  on  Kiepert's  map,  or  el-Uz,  or  Alus,  as  given  by  others. 
This  is  merely  the  name  of  the  ancient  Arabic  goddess  el- 
'Uzz,  and  the  town  was  evidently  named  after  her  in  the  same 
way  that  Anah  was  named  after  Anat.  That  the  name  is 
ancient  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Roman  writers  call  it 
Alusa. 

Half  a  day's  Journey  south  of  Samawa,  on  the  east  bank  of 
the  Euphrates,  and  about  three  hours  from  the  ruins  of  the 
ancient  Uruk  or  Erech,  is  a  place  called  by  Kiepert  el-Khidr, 
by  others  el-Khuthr.  There  is  at  this  place  a  grove  in  which 
all  life  is  inviolable.  It  is,  in  fact,  an  ancient  pre-Islamic 
sanctuary  of  a  well-known  type.  It  was  called,  apparently, 
in  common  parlance,  el-Kliudhr,  or  "the  evergreen."  In 
the  Moslem  period  that  name  came  to  be  applied  to  the 
prophet  Elijah,  and  consequently  to-day  this  grove,  with  its 
ancient  heathen  right  of  sanctuary,  is  held  sacred  to  Elijah. 

Inscription  from  Yer  Kapu  Broussa. — This  inscription  is 
in  the  gate  of  the  old  wall  known  as  Yer  Kapu,  on  the  left- 
hand  post  as  one  goes  out  of  the  city,  at  about  the  height  of 
a  man's  head  and  upward,  and  is  much  chipped  and  worn,  so 
as  to  escape  ordinary  observation.  It  was  shown  to  me 
by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Crawford,  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  missionary  at 
Broussa,  with  whose  assistance  I  obtained  several  rubbings. 

I  also  photographed  an  illegible  inscription  on  a  large,  badly 
flaked  block  of  marble  lying  in  the  street  opposite  a  cafe,  near 
the  Hissar  Kapu,  in  the  upper  city. 

John  p.  Peters. 
St.  Michael's  Church, 

New  York  City. 


THE  MERSHON  COMPANY   PRESS,    RAHWAY,    N.   J. 


[GAYLAMOUNT 

PAMPHLET  BINDER 


LOAN  DEPT 

tf  nd  Of  SUV.V;iSP^~ 


-IBRARY 


<'>'S?Afo?5K.-, 


GeneraUibrary 


